Synopsis

One of NZ television's more notorious episodes, the 1987 Gofta Awards start promisingly with an extended montage of Auckland scenes (just before the share market crash) but it's downhill from there. Presenters Leeza (Entertainment This Week) Gibbons and Nic Nolan look bizarre in silver suits; an underfed and over excited audience grows more and more vocal; special guest John Inman (Mr Humphries from UK sitcom Are You Being Served?) is heckled; and things come badly unstuck as timing issues see winners turned away as they try to collect their awards.

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Comments (7)

Doug Coutts

Posted at 09.49PM - 19.02.2014

One of the problems was the three-tiered winning system. First tier winners were allowed to come up and make a speech, second tier winners could come on stage to receive their award but weren't allowed to make a speech, and third tier winners just had their awards delivered to their table. Trouble was no one explained it, probably because they couldn't, not without blushing.

iain Eggleton

Posted at 01.59PM - 06.09.2011

There has been worse.. or better. At the Feltex Awards at the Poenamu in AKL 75 or something. Everybody pissed... no food .. jeering. BIll McArtney falling over going up ...among others. General mayhem joe public just walking in and joining in the piss up. people going in the pool..Wonderful.

Brendon Cameron

Posted at 12.12PM - 06.09.2011

Rubbish!

Steve

Posted at 05.55PM - 29.08.2011

It's like a school prizegiving.

Morrissey Breen

Posted at 10.37PM - 26.08.2011

The aggressive P.C. drunk who bawled "F_ _ k off!" at John Inman was Peter Wells. A week or so after this debacle, TRUTH featured him glowering petulantly on the front page, with the classic headline: "WE NAME GOFTA SLOB."

iain Eggleton

Posted at 03.54PM - 24.08.2011

Bet Tony (Holden) has a grimmace when he sees this. I think this was the one that gave people epileptic fits as well from the strobe lights. Plus serving booze before and during the show had the expected result. Its a huge "What were they thinking"

Quotes

The audience was locked in the room with no food but lashings of champagne as the long, long show (being broadcast live) descended into anarchy. It was my first year working as a television presenter and I remember thinking, "These are my workmates? They're all mad. How cool! This is going to be fun."

– Michele A'Court

... an uncouth audience whose boozed-up jeers and guffaws, shrieks and cat-calls would have been offensive at a male-only sports shindig.

– Barry Shaw, NZ Herald (16 July 1987, p21)

The show proceeded more or less on the basis that half of those who won Goftas weren’t present to pick them up, and the other half weren’t allowed to.